family – Page 40 – Karla's Cottage

Redoing the Fairy Berry Trail tree house

Dew Drop, dogs, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, Hand painted, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / September 21, 2014

We haven't had access to the Fairy Berry Trail for a while. First, a big storm turned some dead branches into widow-makers, dangling from the top of the trees. Then, my husband and son did some dangling from the treetops with the chainsaw, and trimmed it all up, leaving piles of debris blocking the trails.

This week, we cleared it up and repaired the Fairy Tree House by rebuilding its walls from the downed limbs and some grapevines.

It kind of looks like a big brush pile behind those two large trees.

One of those trees has grown crookedly down, to form a roof. We entwined branches into a dome shape over the crooked branch, creating kind of a igloo shaped structure.

Here is a picture looking through the archway "door" into the room. And a picture of one of my dogs sniffin the other's butt, apparently. Sorry.

After all the branches were in place, we wove fresh grapevine in and out of them to anchor it all. Hopefully, as the vines dry, they will keep the branches in place. The vines were laden with clusters of grapes, so I'm crossing my fingers that they will drop seeds and more vines will grow up the walls that we built today.

The grand fairies have always loved their tree house, but it is even more beckoning now. Very cozy, with full walls and a roof, made up of woven branches with sunshine peeking through. And I created an archway entrance out of grapevines, that is low enough that an adult needs to duck to get in, but just right for the kiddos.

After a day of construction, well, most of a day. We trimmed up some other trees and cleared the paths in the woods while we had the chainsaw out, but a big part of Sunday was needed just for building the tree house.

Anyway, once it was done, I decided it needed a little something. So, got my paints and thought I'd turn the big knot hole by the entrance into a face.

Then, I thought, no, some eyes looking out from the darkness.

That morphed into two sets of eyes, with the lower ones looking up.

And that made me think of the two fairy girls who will be playing in that tree house.

So, I thought I'd make the faces into those girls. This green sprite is supposed to be Sugarwings.

And here is Dewdrop.

Kansas Sunflowers

family, flowers, photography, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / September 15, 2014

Outside of Lawrence, halfway to Tonganoxie, there is a sea of gold, stretching out as far as the eye can see.

I've lived in this town for over 20 years and this was my first visit there. How could I have been missing out on walking through the rows of sunflowers? What was I thinking?

While I always thought it sounded pretty and that I'd like to go and see the flowers in bloom, I had no idea that the field would have such an enchanted feel to it.

Lots of families were there, all taking photos, probably a dozen cars full of people. But, the moment you step into the rows of flowers and are swallowed up by the blossoms, you are alone in a world of yellow and green, lost in the rows of looming giants.

How strange, to be ten minutes outside of the city, and amidst at least 50 other people, but feel so isolated and hidden.

But not in a scary way, it is a magical feel. No, an enchanted feeling. That is the only way to describe it.

I grew up in the middle of an Indiana corn field. Walking into the corn, and into the sunflower field is similar, but the flowers are so much prettier and special. I loved playing the corn when I was young, and could lose myself in the stalks, or find a hiding place to lay back reading a book for a few hours with my Irish Setter as a pillow.

The sunflowers had me reminiscing about those days in the Hoosier corn fields, but as much as I enjoyed those times out in my brother-in-law's crop, this was something different. At some points, we were completely hidden away, with flowers topping 8-9'. Other spots, they where shorter, or there was a slight hill to stand on and we could see acres of yellow off into the horizon.

I think my girls shared my excitement. I don't know how you could walk out into the vastness of the field and not feel the magic.

In some spots, there are clearings, that beckoned me to grab a dog for a pillow and bring a good book to hide out with for a while. I could have easily spent hours in one of those little rooms with green walls.

And then, there would be places so dense, we had to back track and find a new route through, and we'd wonder just how far we'd wondered from the car, just to find out that we were actually only ten feet from the road.

And woven all about the stems, were blue morning glories, the color of our Dorothy's gown.

We discovered that sunflowers weren't just to admire, you could also play with them.

By plucking out a few seeds, you can make happy faces, we wanted them to look like they were laughing, so they would feel as happy as we did.

I hope that others walking through the field see our sunny faces and smile back at them.

Sugarwings made a happy face too.

The fields are free to visit, anyone is welcome. The farmers ask that you leave them as you found them, take out your trash, and pay a dollar each for any flowers that you pick. There is a donation box to help the land owner defray the costs of the field.

We paid for the ones we defaced (well, really we "faced" them) and we picked a couple too.

I hope to take Dewdrop there for a few pictures too. I think she'd look cute in a fairy gown. Being dwarfed by the towering blooms makes a perfect backdrop for a fairy photo shoot.

Plus, I just can't wait to get back there myself.

A Pinkie Pie Birthday party and some home made sidewalk chalk

Dew Drop, family, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / August 26, 2014

August is a busy month for us. My husband and I have an anniversary, The Hippy Chick and Sugarwings both have birthdays, and of course, back to school time. Which still irks me, that it comes so early. Am I showing my age by thinking back to school should be after Labor Day?

We have had a lot of celebratiing going on.

So much so, that some days we had to double up on parties. Sugarwings' school's open house was the same night that we went out to celebrate her mom's birthday.

My social calender has been jam packed. A good buddy has the same birthday as the Hippy Chick and turned 50 this year, so we have had a brunch for her and a Girls' Night Out too.

I feel very blessed with all of the special occasions to attend. And to have friends and family around me to celebrate with. My sister also has a birthday this week, but is too far away for me to be there when she blows out the candles.

I miss being there to give her a birthday hug, but I also know that I'm very lucky to have my sisters in my life and that we are extremely lucky to be so close, even while being so far apart. I hope that Sugarwings and Dewdrop will always have this closeness. Whenever they spat (which is a LOT) I always tell them that a sister is a forever friend.

Not that it helps. When someone takes a toy from your hands, or screams in your face, it is hard to feel overwhelming friendship and appreciation at that moment.

The party that our Hippy Chick threw was full of friendship and fun. She let Sugarwings choose the theme, Pinkie Pie, and added lots of pink polka dotted balloons to the park by her house. Simple, colorful, and cute. With old fashioned games that inspired lots of laughs and running.

She provided some fun little giveaways, and made a gluten/dairy free cake with fresh strawberries. Sugarwings and I made some side walk chalk to give to her friends too.

There isn't much to making it, but I think we could have done it a better way. Maybe this post should be titled, "How NOT to make Sidewalk Chalk"

Here is what we did wrong. First, no recipe, no measuring, and no thinking it out. I kind of figured I'd wing it. And I was wrong, it would've been better if I'd paid attention.

First of all, I had no idea that plaster of paris would dry so fast. Our plan was to add the glitter to it, stir in some water, then pour it into a mold and swirl in food coloring to each piece of chalk in the molds.

Well, it was thick as burnt and lumpy gravy within seconds. Seconds! I did not use enough water. I found that if you use more water, it takes days to dry, but it is better than having it dry before you can get it in a mold because your mixture didn't have enough liquid.

And it sets up permanently. This bucket, after soaking for a week, is still coated with plaster. I thought it would wash away if I soaked it, but no, the bucket is ruined.

If you are making this, use something you want to throw away, like a Dollar Store bucket, not your favorite pail.

So, here is how you should do it:

Put on gloves

Add two cups of plaster of paris to a throw away bucket
Mix food coloring into one cup of water (we didn't do this, I figured out afterwards that it would be better to stir the food coloring into the water ahead of time, instead of adding it to the mix later)
Have your silicone molds nearby and ready to pour the mixture into ( you can also
pour the mix into small plastic bowls, and after they dry, break the chalk into chunks)
Dump a whole container of fine glitter into the plaster of paris, mix well
Slowly stir in water
Pour into the molds, let sit for a few days
Remove the chalk from the molds and let them sit for a few more days. Ours took over a week to set up when we did it this way, but the chalk was really nice. And the silicone molds made cute shapes.

PS- happy birthday, Bobbie!

Around the cottage

Dew Drop, family, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / August 24, 2014

Summer ends too quickly for me. Especially this year, we have had fall like temps that make me believe that summer has really ended, not just that school starts way too early.

On Sugarwing's first day of second grade, we could see our breath, it was so chilly! That is NOT typical Kansas weather in mid August. Usually we are cursing the cracked, dry, brown earth that is baking in the heat.

Now, I'm not complaining about not feeling like I live in a smelting pot, I just am discombobulated by the freaky weather and am going to start thinking about pumpkin pie before it is even time to harvest our tomatoes.

We have made use of this untypical August cool air by taking lots of bike rides and hitting the walking trails. During one walk, we paused for a selfie, and snapped it just in time to catch Twinkle in the act of side swiping Sugarwings and I both with her tongue.

Besides working on Nature's Blessing journal covers, I've not had much of a chance to get creative, instead, I've been hanging with the grand fairies and working in the yard. All the work that normally gets put off til cooler, fall weather has been tempting me to be out doors, doing it now instead.

Oh, I've had time for a few little redos, like fixing up this frame from an estate sale, and I've been in a deep cleaning frenzy in the house for some odd reason.

The frame was sprayed with bonding primer (zinser)

Washed with watered down, coffee colored paint.

Then, wiped with a paper towel. I plan on sanding it for a distressed look, then popping in a pretty picture of a grand fairy.

Of course, I'll have plenty of those to choose from!

A family Stay-cation

family

By Karla Nathan / August 17, 2014

Honestly, our whole summer has been a stay-cation. We've taken at least one day trip a week, even if it is just to the pool or lake. I've tried to have a weekly outing and a daily project for the grand fairies when they are here with me.

But we were able to slip in one getaway, where we stayed at a hotel in Kansas City with a water park.

And spent the next day at the KC zoo.

It's not how far you go that counts.

It's who you go there with.

29 years

family

By Karla Nathan / August 10, 2014

Our 29th anniversary is today, and we've had multiple celebrations for it. A romantic dinner out one night, and boating with friends, enjoying a sunset picnic on another.

Plus, a weekend with Sugarwings while her parents work. We talked about going away, staying somewhere special and taking our little Sprite along with us. Maybe St. Louis? or Omaha? Just a quick trip out of town.

But after the floating picnic at dusk with our friends, and the shining moon came out over the water, we decided that corny as it is, "There's no place like home," is a truthful statement.

What could be nicer than a lazy, relaxing weekend on the lake? We are pretty happy right where we are.

And when I heard that there would be a "super moon" plus a meteor shower tonight, I knew we'd made the right choice!

Why we love the Topeka Zoo

Dew Drop, family, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / August 1, 2014

We have such a good time when we go to the zoo in Topeka. For one thing, it is small, and easy to get around in. It used to be kind of sad and run down, but improvements have been made over the years and every time we go, it gets better and better.

Everything is clean. Everyone is friendly.

There is a 106 year old carousel in the park next to the zoo, and I've never seen it busy. Most times when we go, there are very few people there. This time, we were the only ones visiting this gorgeous, old ride, for about an hour or so. The cost is only $1.25, or 15 ride tickets for $15 (includes the train too).

It's so cheap, and there were no lines, so we rode over and over and over. Well, at least they did, I get a bit dizzy just watching it go around. If I'd joined in for multiple rides, I'd probably still be spinning around in my head today.

The attendants are always friendly to kids and since there was no one else there, the young man at the controls let the girls play on the horses, giant chickens, zebras, etc. trying each one out before choosing the perfect steed for the ride.

The adjacent park has rose gardens, a big community pool, a new play ground, trails, and a very, very old play ground made up of giant cement animals to climb on. When my kids were little, there were tunnels, but those have since been covered up. I'm glad the goofy animals are still there to play on.

And play in.

Once you get inside the zoo (only $15 for three of us for the day) it's an easy walk through it. With some interactive sites along the way, like this African bush camp. We usually can play jungle explorer there for an hour or so.

This zoo has had a checkered past, losing accreditation a couple of times. But major changes have been implemented and it is a sweet, little place to visit now and seems to be very well run and kept up beautifully. It is a quick get away for us, only 20 minutes from my house to the gate.

And how often can you find a place where you can hitch a ride on the king of beasts?

My grand fairies love having lions to climb on.

And a "cweepy" (according to Dewdrop) cave where you can visit the cats up close and personal.

Bigger zoos of course, have bigger attractions, but I don't think any of them can beat Topeka for price, accessibility, and pure charm.

Interested in the journal swap? Info here.

How to make two ingredient Fluff Stuff

family, how-to projects, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 30, 2014

This is the easiest, cheapest, fluffiest stuff to make. All you need is shaving cream and corn starch.

I buy both at Walmart, so the supplies are under $2.

You will also need a bucket or bowl, and spoon. Possibly glitter if you like sparkles.

We LOVE sparkles, so dumped in a bunch of it.

I know I mentioned a spoon, but we found that it was more fun to mix with fingers.

I didn't say that it was more tidy to use fingers…

Here is how we did it:

We randomly added shaving cream and cornstarch as we played with it, then dumped in glitter.

Here is how you should do it:

Spray out a giant pile of shaving cream, reserving some in the can in case you need it.

Slowly add and mix in cornstarch till you get it to a good consistency. (about 1/2 to 3/4 box)

Add more shaving cream if needed.

Add glitter, if wanted. (You'll be glad you did)

I'd say you could add some food coloring if you 'd like. But we were going for summertime snow, and singing about Olaf as we made ours.

Sugarwings added some shells to play with after she was done pretending it was snow. This is how it looked after leaving it outside on the table overnight, uncovered. I'd say it would probably be easily saved in a plastic bowl and reused if wanted. But for us, the fun is in the making, so we'll spend another $2 and make some more next time.

Our Summer Of Fun has been going by much too fast.

But we are enjoying every minute of it.

Taking time off to be with the girls, doing craft projects, day trips, swimming, and just sitting on the porch telling stories has been good for my soul.

Probably not so good for business… but I have made time to create and am looking forward to the "Journal of Nature's Blessings" swap. (this photo is from my prototype). And I want to thank everyone who helped me de-clutter the Boutique with the purchases made during the 50% off sale! I went from 10 pages of inventory to 6.

Now, time to rebuild with new goodies.

But not quite yet, I'm going to soak up some more summer fun first!

Interested in the journal swap? Info here.

Upcycled crayons

family, how-to projects, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 15, 2014

Our summer of projects and experiments got off to a fine start. This one really turned out good.

We made some new crayons in fun shapes. Those two grand fairies had an unmanageable amount of art supplies, and way too many open boxes of "color crins" (what I always called them as a kid, and still think of them as. I really thought that was the name of them and Crayon was the name brand. Like the whole tissue/Kleenex thing- it was crins/Crayons)

We decided to melt them down into a new look and share them with friends.

It was also a good excuse to clean out the craft drawers, and along the way we tested each marker to see if they still worked, threw away the duds, and got all the supplies sorted.

Here are a couple of things I learned in the process:

1- The papers come off easier if you soak the crins in hot water for a bit.

2- Name brands matter! Crayola's are the BEST. The cheap knock off crayons were not as easy to work with, they got all mooshy in the water, the papers stick and don't want to come off. On the Crayolas, the papers just fall away, and the crayon itself still is perfect. I know that with my own art supplies, especially paints, cheapos aren't worth buying. I'll remember that for the kids too.

3- Unwrapping crayons is a hideously monotonous job and you should either find a partner with an extended attention span to help, or plan on doing it alone while she entertains herself.

4- One of the most fun parts of the job is shaking the glitter out of the table cloth when you are done.

My partner isn't one of those people with an extended attention span. She decided to entertain herself choreographing the project and taking my photos while I worked away on the monotonous part of the job.

She has some directorial skills and coached me into being a better actress for the camera. (I wish she had directed me to the make up trailer before my closeups…)

Once we got to the part where she could break and sort the colors, then add glitter, she became involved again. I'll spare you the photos of her toothbrush, closeups of the trash can, and the other items she took pics of while I unwrapped and unwrapped and unwrapped til I gave up and decided we had PLENTY of crayons to work with.

The directions I'd seen for making these, said to use a silicone baking pan. We started to use this one, then decided other shapes would be more interesting. So, we went for flowers and hearts. But, I discovered when we were done, that the wax doesn't all come out. I'm glad I didn't follow Sugarwings' advice and make a few of each shape. I'm wishing now that I'd stuck with just one pan, not two. Because both are ruined. But I guess that means that they are now craft pans.

We will use them for home made side walk chalk and salt sculptures. Those are some of projects we have lined up. I filled a shopping cart at Walmart with summertime supplies, here is what we are keeping on hand for various activities:

2 boxes of rock salt
1 gallon of vinegar
4 boxes of baking soda
food coloring
6 boxes of corn starch
2 squirt guns
6 cans of shaving cream
Pink, purple, and white tempura paint
1 large box of plaster of paris
Tons of pink and silver and purple GLITTER!
100 pounds of play sand

The crayon shapes turned out cute. I don't know that the glitter will actually transpose onto paper when you draw with them.

But we enjoy dumping it into everything we do.

Here is how you make the shaped colors:

Soak and peel off crayon wrappers
Break crayons into silicone baking pans
Sprinkle on glitter (just for the fun of it, I doubt if it stays on the paper when you color)
Bake at 350 for 5 minutes, check every minute after that till all are melted.
Leave pans alone for an hour or so. If you try to get the wax out too soon, the crayons break.
Bake some bread or cookies right after so the house smells better. Hot crayons stink.

Roots and Bliss

Dew Drop, dogs, fairies, family, Sugarwings, Travel

By Karla Nathan / June 27, 2014

For the solstice, we drove to the Ozarks to go to the Roots and Bliss festival hosted at a campground on the river.

I'm not much of a camper, or a festival goer. But I knew that my littles would be there, and that their dad was a major contributor to the event, he'd been working on the venue for the whole previous year.

It was really quite nice to see him in action, and to see the respect and caring that he was shown by the attendees.

I didn't attend any of the workshops, but I liked listening.

And of course, playing with the grand fairies.

And splashing around down in the river.

My only regret is that we didn't bring dogs with us. We might have been the only people there without a pup. Well, not quite, but there were lots of furry friends around.

Funny, many of the dogs had at least one blue eye.

In the last few years, I've started a habit of making fairies on beaches I visit. At this beach, there wasn't much in the way of shells, so I didn't think about it, til I saw that mossy green, heart shaped rock and knew it had to be a bodice for a fairy dress.

Then, saw a skirt shaped rock to match. The head was easy too, then I was stumped with no rock wings or appendages. (oh, maybe "stumped" was a rude way to put it)

So, I cheated, and tucked the beach stones into my pocket for later. When I got back up to the camp, I poked around and found some sticks, and dead leaves that worked out pretty good and I was able to finish my little sprite.

The weekend was visually quite lovely, pretty lights, a winding, candlelit pathway, happy faces every where. Yep, we were very proud of our boy for his part in it all.

There was yoga, from the talented Miss Tree, who has travelled the world to become a master class teacher, and who thought up and started the whole Roots and Bliss idea. I'm glad they were blessed with beautiful weather and a good crowd after all the hard work that they put into the planning.

Sugarwings' mom was a fire dancer, and I was so mesmerized, I didn't even think of taking a photo. But here is the fam before the show started…

Did I mention that we were proud of our boy? And I'm a bit proud of myself for going. I had no intention of doing it. This sort of thing isn't my typical weekend, but sometimes you do need to get out of your regular routine and try something different, don't you?

I prefer books and TV or movies to live music, and get plenty of out door life in my own yard and have never felt the need to camp. So, the weekend was going to be a stretch for me.

At the last minute, I offered to join my husband (he wouldn't have missed it for anything, he'd been out of town and hadn't seen the girls all week. That man would have driven anywhere to see his grand daughters after a week without them). So I gathered my courage and decided I'd sleep in a tent in the wilderness.

Luckily, we got there and found a very nice, air conditioned, cabin to rent for the night and I didn't even have to unroll a sleeping bag.

But I would have done it! I was willing to give it a try.

And trying something different is kind of nice. Especially, when you are surrounded by such nice people.

ps- I'm having a Summer Clearance sale in the Boutique. I've neglected that poor little shoppette too long, I need to clean up, clear out, and refresh it all. You are welcome to soak up some summertime savings and help me get a fresh start, by using this link and getting 50% off everything in the store:

http://www.karlascottage.com/?code=Summersale

(You must use that address to get the special price. Going to the regular address does NOT take you to the 50% discount)

And please know, I will refund excess postage after boxingup your purchase and weighing it.